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International charity Oxfam is standing by its “Global Ambassador” Scarlett Johansson, at least for now, despite the fact that the Hollywood actress has come out in full support of Israeli settlements and profiteering in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement yesterday, Johansson defended the deal and praised Israeli settlements.

“We have been engaged in dialogue with Scarlett Johansson and she has now expressed her position in a statement, including stressing her pride in her past work with Oxfam,” Oxfam spokesperson Kate Pattison told The Electronic Intifada in an email this morning.

“Oxfam is now considering the implications [of] her new statement and what it means for Ms Johansson’s role as an Oxfam global ambassador,” Pattison added.

Laundering settlements

“I remain a supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine,” the actress said. “SodaStream is a company that is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights. That is what is happening in their Ma’ale Adumim factory every working day.”

Maaleh Adumim is an Israeli colony built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.

Choosing celebrity over principle

Johansson’s clear endorsement of Israeli colonization and regurgitation of SodaStream propaganda is at sharp odds with Oxfam’s own policy.

In a statement on 23 January, Oxfam said it had informed the actress that “Oxfam believes that businesses that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.”

Johansson’s statement indicates that the “dialogue” Oxfam has been hiding behind has failed to impress on the actress that profiting from Israeli crimes is totally incompatible with a role promoting human rights and development.

But at least for now, Oxfam has chosen to back celebrity over principle by continuing to stand behind Johansson.

In doing so, it has taken a clear position against Palestinians and their rights and chosen complicity with Israeli occupation and colonization.

“We demand Oxfam respond immediately and drop her as their Global Ambassador in accordance with their own stated position that settlements are a major barrier to peace and contributor to poverty,” said the US Campaign’s Ramah Kudaimi.

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how bad is her acting career that she'd prefer getting paid by an occupation profiteering soda company over standing with international law and human decency? I am confident Oxfam will not stand the shame of being associated with such odious, fake beauty

Is she so desperate as to profit from homeless and helpless people of Palestine. She must be banned from Oxfam and is not an ideal ambassador on Human rights. Oxfam should be ashamed of itself along with this desperate actress.

Part of me is (naively) surprised at Johansson's statement. Wow! She signed for those millions from SodaStream in full knowledge of the facts (which she now handily distorts). Does anyone know how many millions she is being paid, exactly?

Well done. If more people did this, Oxfam would get the picture. I am so surprised at Oxfam's attitude, even more than I am at Johansson's attitude. I used to like her a lot, similarly Oxfam - well, no more. Pity.

Scarlett J has exposed a previously inconceivable gullability. It's called 'drop all common sense' when money is involved. She may not realize it, but she has disgraced herself in the eyes of many good people.

Hope you're right, "calm down everybody". We'll see what happens . . .
Oxfam is such a great place to pick up unusual gifts and I'd hate to see them suffer if they don't dump her. Because that means the recipients of their good works suffer to. But a big problem is that Israel slings the "anti-Semite" tag at anyone who criticises their occupation, and people are scared of being labelled with that odious term. (Forget the nukes, armoured tanks, helicopter gunships etc - calling someone an anti-Semite is Israel's greatest weapon - and they use it a lot . . .)

Yes Dave, using the term anti-semite has been a very effective weapon and it's actually intimidation that's intended by those who use it so let's refuse to be intimidated! When that's been slung at me I always say : correction, anti-zionist and proceed to explain why.
All people from that region of the world are semite peoples whether they be Muslim, Jewish or Christian.
However the vast majority of the inhabitants of the state of Israel are not semites at all but Europeans descended from a people whose origins can be traced to the Caucases and who converted to Judaism for ecomic reasons. They have no connection whatsoever with the twelve tribes of Israel from whom they claim to be descended. There is no such thing as a Jewish race either. Jewish describes those who adhere to the Jewish religion and live by its laws, which again the vast majority of Israelis do not.

You are right Tess - I am constantly amazed that settlers, on an almost daily basis, break one of the mitzvah they have to learn and recite at the ceremony at age 13 or so - one of the "thou shalt nots" is one forbidding the destruction of fruit bearing trees "even during a siege" - it is mitzvot number 607, I think, or thereabouts. So much for obeying their religious precepts!

Greetings, Israel continues to commit unlawful punishment and crimes against Humanity upon the Palestinian Peoples.

It matters not, to me, what religion law breakers profess to follow; oppression, apartheid, occupation, theft of land, destruction of property, denial of Human Rights, murder, all of these are criminal acts deserving International sanction and punishment.

The United States of America is obviously not using its power to resolve this decade’s long criminal occupation, instead, choosing to support Israel and this criminal enterprise.

Thus the U.S.A. is also criminally culpable; AS ARE Nations such as my own, Australia, cravenly following the U.S.\Israeli cowardly unethical directive, o for a Government that speaks for us people.

Religion is irrelevant; these criminal acts originate in the decisions and actions of the Israeli and American Governments.

World opinion is near unanimous on this point; Israel and the U.S.A. is criminally culpable in the occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Peoples from the land which is their birthright. The Palestinian Peoples are an integral part of the great Diaspora of “Semites”; they have a claim to the land that none of the incoming immigrants can match.

I call upon members of the United Nations Security Council together with The General Assembly, to re-affirm the many past resolutions condemning Israel, and to institute lawful effective procedures, by force if necessary, to remove all settlers from land internationally recognised as the State of Palestine.

Such action would help restore the U.N.’s ethical and moral reason to exist, and remind all members to read again their responsibilities to the Founding Charter. The Palestinian question is deserving of resolution, not just lip-service.

Further, that the United Nations creates a peace keeping force to stay with Palestine until Palestine is peacefully established,
regards. THOMAS W. ADAMS.